The Unlimited Mercifier

What others have said

For Ibn 'Arabi, words have a sacred function. They link what cannot be expressed with what mankind is craving to hear.
Stephen Hirtenstein serves Ibn 'Arabi with a joyful vitality that mirrors the richness of his life and his meaning. Across a near-millennium, a new link is made.
Peter Brook, film and theatre director, Paris

Quantum physics tells us that consciousness, not matter, is the ground of all being and this is now becoming the basis for a paradigm shift from a matter-based science to a consciousness-based science. But the idea of the primacy of consciousness is not new; this truth about reality has been creatively intuited by many in the past, among them the sheik of all sheiks Ibn 'Arabi.
'Arabi is one of my favorites, for the simple reason that he followed the wisdom tradition of exploring reality through our intellect. Stephen Hirtenstein has made a wonderful contribution to the integration of spirituality in our modern scientific thinking by making 'Arabi accessible to the popular mind.
It is by far the simplest and most heart-warming rendition of Ibn 'Arabi and his teachings that I have come across. Read it, and you will be able to explore the spiritual journey of a giant intellect.
Prof. Amit Goswami, Dept. of Physics, University of Oregon

Stephen Hirtenstein's new book is the first study of the great Sufi mystic's life and teachings designed directly for the English-speaking audience: the result is an immensely readable, absorbing, and impressively comprehensive overview which is accessible to the first-time reader while offering rewards and surprises at each re-reading.
It is certainly the best general "introduction" to Ibn 'Arabi's complex and fascinating life and teachings for anyone still unfamiliar with this mystical genius.
At the same time, its biographical (and often dramatically autobiographical) focus throws new light on the interplay of history, spiritual experience, and literary expression in Ibn 'Arabi's writing, even for those at home with his work.
Prof. James Morris, Dept. of Islamic Studies, University of Exeter

The title The Unlimited Mercifier is taken from a line in Ibn 'Arabi's monumental Futuhat al-Makkiya and signifies the metaphysical vastness of his vision and the universal significance of his teachings.
From the outset it is made clear that Ibn 'Arabi's is an extraordinarily elevated, comprehensive, all-inclusive universal perspective on human reality, possibility and potential. Ibn 'Arabi's metaphysics of unity embraces both the ancient and the modern and "gives credence", says the author, "to all the divergent possibilities of human kind and the natural world, a new integration of reason and revelation".
It affords an invaluable opportunity to understand Ibn 'Arabi's thought on an "intimate and personal level" as being inextricably connected with our own life and existence in the "here and now" of modernity.
I'm sure it deserves (and will appeal to) a wide audience – certainly anybody at all interested in the Unity of Existence, knowingly or unknowingly, from whatever tradition or intellectual background or no tradition at all. It is a fine and welcome study.
Peter Coates, Dept. of Psychology, Univ. of Lincoln

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